I’m listening to Uneasy Money by P.G. Wodehouse right now. I love listening to LibriVox audiobooks of Wodehouse’s stories, because they are just so darn cute and light-hearted, and I can space out a little with them when I’m doing the dishes. I’ve listened to so many now that I’m good at guessing who ends up with who. Not that it is all that much of a challenge once you get about a fifth of the way through the book, but I’m to the point where I have only to hear a name and I think things like “Ah, there’s our main love interest” or “He’s just a red herring, his job is going to be to cause trouble for our heroine.” But I haven’t finished the story yet, so even though I feel like I have comfortably predicted all the pairings, please don’t tell me how things are settled at the end!

When reading or listening to a book, I’m always unconsciously open to clues as to when it was set, but I haven’t heard any so far. However, Uneasy Money was serialized starting in 1915, so I think that’s a pretty reasonable date for a dress. I like 1915 fashion, actually, because the skirts get a little fuller than they were in 1914, and it’s really quite cute. Compare March 1914 to November 1915, and you’ll see what I mean.

Contest is over, as of 9:00 PM, and no one guessed the exact date. Brian and I were married on August 9, 2003, so the closest guess was Trazy’s guess of August 5th. Congratulations, Trazy, and tell me which black and white dress you’d like for me to color and how!

I only just now discovered that it was possible to leave comments on this blog…silly me.

Anyways, I just clicked on the first dress shown, but I have to tell you that I really, really enjoy all of the work you do. You’re an amazing artist, and fashion designer, if those are two different things.

So, yes, I’m sure you’ve heard all this stuff before, so I won’t bore you with it…a lot. I like your fantasy dresses the most; yes, I’m one of those nerd authors that has gleaned some HUGE inspiration from your dresses.

And lastly, a relevant question: Where do I go to vote on your polls? Do you have to be a member or something?

Can I make a suggestion for an outfit? I would love to see a look that Betty Draper wears in Mad Men or something inspired by her. I love her clothes so much, and would actually wear some of them if I could get my hands on them.

i think i would like the newest balck and white dress to be colored in the gold colors, and have some kind of royal feel to it. I want the bows/decorations/trimmings to be pink, and the rest either white, gold, tan, or something similar. the skirt should have some kind of lighter golden swirly royal pattern, a lighter gold than the background…

oh darn!
saying the date, it makes me feel kinda dumb not to guess it, you ended it at 9:00 PM, on the 9th day, how much more obvious could you have been!
shame i thought of this AFTER the competition. grr.
love your work :)
carissa
xoxo

Minerva, me too! I forget which reader I like best for Wodehouse, but I know there’s one who does a Jeeves that just has me giggling to myself as I do dishes…

Mairi, I’m not good at drawing people, to be honest. If you want to learn, I’d recommend looking through some of the tutorials on a site like deviantart. Searching for keywords like “drawing people” or “figure drawing tutorial” will get you a lot of results, all by people much better than me ^^;;
For example, here’s an interesting one:http://cedarseed.deviantart.com/art/Big-Guide-to-Drawing-the-Body-15014442
Also, there are people who post stock images that are great references for sketching. I like http://senshistock.deviantart.com/, myself.
I keep meaning to take my own advice and use resources like that to get better at drawing humans, but… I’m lazy. I hope you can do better than I can. :)